Tom Brady Just Ran a Faster 40 Than He Did at the 2000 Combine
That’s Tom Brady’s 40 yard dash today. This Tom Brady’s 40-yard dash 19 years ago:
So as a kid right out of college, he was running so slow he was in danger of being reclaimed by nature. And still won a Super Bowl the following year. And now he’s a full tenth of a second faster now than he did then. In what was supposed to be his athletic prime.
For the record, here are some of the times from this year’s rookie crop of QBs:
Daniel Jones, drafted 6th overall: 4.81
Dwayne Hasksins, drafted 15th: 5.04
Will Grier, drafted 100th: 4.84
Jarrett Stidham, drafted 133rd: 4.81
Which would put Brady somewhere between .13 and .36 seconds off the pace of some of the top seven QBs selected in the draft class when he’s about to turn 42 years old. Let that sink in. Marinate your brain in that for a moment. Then read on.
You were saying about a Cliff?
Last night at the fireworks I went to with all the swells at Oyster Harbors CC in Osterville (I might be Weymouth, but I can still walk among Kings and not lose the common touch), someone asked me how long I think Brady has left. And I answered as I have for a while now. That if Brady retired when people first started saying it was time for him to because he was on the decline, that would’ve been about five Super Bowl appearances ago. And three championships. And counting.
My new response to that question is going to be, “Never.” I’ve heard the last of “Well, he’s 42″ and “Everyone loses it eventually” and “Time is still undefeated” and all that. I’m listening to no more discussion about the quarterbacks who played into their 40s. Cite me no more their declining stats. Because the flaw in all those arguments about athletes slowing down and quarterbacks hitting a wall is that those examples you use are all humans. Brady clearly is not.
He is literally not slowing down. He’s not hitting a metaphorical wall; he’s hitting his fastest pass velocity:
Which would’ve been second fastest ever recorded at the Combine. Just 1 mph off of Patrick Mahomes.
That’s not human. That’s metahuman. And there’s no convincing me he won’t change that 5.17 40-time to a 5.04 and that 61 mph to a 63 by this time next year. Because he’s not headed off a cliff. He’s more like a one man Leap of Faith.
